Call it a bitter APA....IMO that's more accurate. I dunno, maybe I'm just more curmudgeonly than usual today.

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I decided to call my beer an "American Bitter" because I wanted a low gravity yet flavorful beer. An American Bitter was something I had never heard of but the name seemed to fit the beer I wanted. I envisioned an English bitter but with American hops. Something I could drink a lot of and not pass out- I mean fall asleep.

After designing my recipe, I found out Surly Brewing Co. in Minneapolis makes a "Bitter Brewer" and 21st Amendment in San Francisco makes a beer called "Bitter American." After looking at the ingredients on the breweries' websites and finding clone recipes in BYO magazine, I decided to go with Golden Promise rather than the Maris Otter I originally wanted to use. This also confirmed my notion that I made the right choice in calling my beer should an American Bitter. IMO APA's are already hoppy so the beer I brewed won't fit that category. Not that American Bitter is a style but the name seemed to fit.

So I'm enjoying my most recent revision of this brew as we speak. I'm really liking most of the adjustments I ended up making to this recipe. The major changes were adding gypsum, changing yeast from WLP001 to WLP051 and adding maltodextrin. The hop bite is still there, but more balanced this time around, and the mouthfeel isn't watery this time around. The only thing I think I'd change next time is the yeast. The WLP051 does not like to play nice in the flocculation department. The first beer I tried from this batch tasted like I did a shooter from a White Labs vial, and that was 10 days after bottling with the last day and a half in the fridge. Probably going to go for a less attenuative English yeast next time around.

And as far as the Columbus + Ultra hop combo goes, it's pretty nice. There's a lot of dankness on the nose and initially on the palate, but it finishes with a nice spicy noble note. It seems like it could use a little something to fill out the flavor though. Will probably add some Amarillo for floral/citrus highlights next time I use these two hops in combination.

You might try 1332 NW Ale. I like the flavor of this one in APA and IPA. I think it was an English strain that made its way over to the states and is now used by a few breweries in the PNW. Not super attenuative so could work with this style, and it flocs well.

I think "American bitter" is both a more accurate description and a good way to approach the recipe for this type of beer. Strive for the balance that a good bitter has, but use those dank american hops and you are halfway there.

I also like a high character yeast in this type of beer. 1098 British is tough to beat.